Village gala hits highway spot today

Deirdre Newman

If you see people dancing in the street on Pacific Coast Highway this

morning, don’t be surprised. They haven’t had too much coffee. After

five years of lobbying, they will be celebrating the official

transfer of the main thoroughfare in this part of town -- from

Newport Coast Drive to Jamboree Road.

Today marks the kickoff of Corona del Mar’s Centennial

Celebration, an event that will be sweetened when Caltrans

representatives hand over an oversized check to the city for $3.5

million. The city already got the money from Caltrans and has been

quietly maintaining the stretch of concrete since the beginning of

October, Newport Beach public works director Steve Badum said.

The money will be used to enhance the celebrated portion of Coast

Highway with improvements like median landscaping, new crosswalks,

street furniture and other aesthetic and safety improvements. John

Blom, chairman of the Corona del Mar Business Improvement District --

the group that created the plan for improving the stretch of highway

-- heralded the transfer as the single most important thing to ever

happen to the city.

“It’s a vital arterial through our city that has cut our city

right in half that the city has never had any control over,” Blom

said. “Caltrans has done things in the past like come in and

eliminate crosswalks ... they didn’t really listen to the wants and

needs of the residents of the city.”

In 1999, members of the business district urged city staff members

to negotiate with Caltrans to take over this portion of the highway.

The district wanted the city to take it over so the city could make

improvements recommended by the district’s vision 2004 revitalization

plan, now known as the vision plan.

In March, City Council members approved a plan -- which was

controversial at the time -- to take ownership of this stretch of

Coast Highway. Some council members had been concerned that the $3.5

million Caltrans was offering wouldn’t be enough to cover repairs and

maintenance of the road.

But supporters of the handover, who felt Caltrans’ ownership made

it extremely tough to get improvements approved, convinced the

council it was necessary to take ownership.

In March, Badum estimated it would cost an average of about

$700,000 to maintain the road. Council members agreed, at the time,

to put the $3.5 million in an account for future repairs and

carefully watch how it is spent.

The first portion of the money will be put to use on improving the

medians, which is anticipated to start in January, Blom said. Other

enhancements down the road will hopefully include lighted crosswalks

and coordinating the streetlights, Blom added.

“When Caltrans had control of the [traffic] lights, they wouldn’t

let the city do anything to coordinate the traffic flow at the

intersection,” Blom said. “It was a real conflict because Pacific

Coast Highway, which runs one direction, was owned by a completely

different entity than the city. But the city owned all the cross

streets. They didn’t work together.”

Safety improvements are also on the list, like coordinating

flashing crosswalks with traffic flow, Blom said.

“For our own residents, it will benefit them, too, because not

only will they be able to get to places in Newport Beach faster;

they’ll also be able to stop the car and get out and cross the street

without fear of getting run over,” Blom said.

Taking over this stretch of highway may even inspire the city to

follow suit with the rest of Pacific Coast Highway through Newport

Beach, City Manager Homer Bludau said.

“It will give us an opportunity to have jurisdiction over a

portion of Pacific Coast Highway, and that will allow us to try and

be more responsive to the community in terms of traffic speeds and

traffic circulation and commerce along that portion of [the

highway],” Bludau said. “So it may be that over time, we’ll

eventually want to take over all of [the highway], so this is kind of

as a test model for us.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.